To cut an electric wire, the operator employs a wire stretcher to loosen the portion at which the electric wire is drawn and cut. In general, such a wire stretcher has an extendable telescopic shaft with ends to which a wire gripper for grasping an electric wire is coupled. Using such a wire stretcher, the wire grippers at both ends can each grip the electric wire and the telescopic shaft at the center can be contracted, thereby allowing the electric wire between both the wire grippers to be loosened in the shape of an arch. Known as a technique for gripping or grasping an electric wire is a wire gripper with a wire stretching function shown in FIG. 7 (see Patent Document 1).
In FIG. 7, on the upper side of a support frame 102 of the wire gripper 100 with the wire stretching function, there is formed an electric wire receiver 102a with which the upper side of the electric wire is brought into contact. The support frame 102 is mounted so as to be slidable in the vertical direction relative to a relay member 104 by operating an operating bolt 103 that is rotatably mounted to the relay member 104 at the center.
On both sides of the relay member 104, two coupling levers 105 are pivotally supported in a swingable manner. There is also provided a coupling end member 101 via these two coupling levers 105, thus forming a parallel link mechanism. There is also provided an electric wire retainer 106 which is in contact with the lower side of the electric wire and which is coupled to an upper part of the coupling levers 105 so as to be brought into contact with or away from the electric wire receiver 102a by allowing the coupling end member 101 to operate the coupling levers 105 in a swingable manner. In such a structure, pulling the coupling end member 101 in the direction of an arrow 107 allows the electric wire to be gripped between the electric wire receiver 102a and the electric wire retainer 106.